Hopkinton company terminating property leases

Hopkinton-based information technology and storage giant EMC. Corp., the largest for-profit employer in central Massachusetts, will eliminate 1,004 jobs this year as it terminates several property leases, according to the Worcester Business Journal. The information was disclosed Friday in a public filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

EMC didn't detail which employees would lose jobs or which locations would be consolidated, but the cuts will affect positions around the world, the company said, and will cover EMC's information storage, RSA information security and information intelligence group segments. The company said it would incur an $80 million charge related to the restructuring, the WBJ reported.

EMC lists more than 100 domestic locations on its website and has nearly 11 million square feet of owned or leased space around the world, according to a recent financial filing. The company has six properties in Hopkinton and three in Franklin.

Lesley Ogrodnick, a company spokeswoman, said in an email today that despite the cuts, the company plans to end 2013 with more employees than it had at the start of the year, according to the WBJ.

"For the last couple years, as EMC has been transforming our business, we have had ongoing rebalancing efforts. This most recent one, which was disclosed on Jan. 29, 2013, is relatively consistent with these actions to rebalance and reorganize our workforce to best align with the opportunities ahead," she wrote.

A filing on Jan. 29 disclosed that EMC management had approved a restructuring plan that involved a reduction in workforce to be substantially completed by the first quarter (which ended March 31) and fully completed by the end of this year. That filing did not disclose how many positions would be cut.

EMC cut 1,163 positions in 2012, 787 in 2011 and 400 in 2010, according to filings. The related restructuring charges for those three years totaled more than $78 million.